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The enormous service done by the one was well-nigh neutralized
by the injurious effects resulting from his advocacy of
the other. For Karl Marx, the égalitaire, we feel the
profoundest respect; as for Karl Marx, the autoritaire, we must
consider him an enemy. Liberty said as much in its first
issue, and sees no reason to change its mind. He was an
honest man, a strong man, a humanitarian, and the promulgator
of much vitally important truth, but on the most vital
question of politics and economy he was persistently and irretrievably mistaken.

We cannot, then, join in the thoughtless, indiscreet, and in-
discriminate laudation of his memory indulged in so generally
by the labor press and on the labor platform. Perhaps, how-
ever, we might pass it by without protest, did it not involve
injustice and ingratitude to other and greater men. The extravagant
claim of precedence as a radical political economist put
forward for Karl Marx by his friends must not be allowed to
overshadow the work of his superiors. We give an instance
of this claim, taken from the resolutions passed unanimously
by the great Cooper Union meeting held in honor of Marx:
"In the field of economic social science he was the first to
prove by statistical facts and by reasoning based upon universally
recognized principles of political economy that capitalistic
production must necessarily lead to the monopolizing and
concentrating of all industry into the hands of a few, and
thus, by robbing the working class of the fruits of their toil,
reduce them to absolute slavery and degradation." These
words were read to the audience in English by Philip Van
Patten and in German by our worthy comrade, Justus Schwab.
Is it possible that these men are so utterly unacquainted with
the literature of Socialism that they do not know this
statement to be false, and that the tendency and consequence of
capitalistic production referred to were demonstrated to the
world time and again during the twenty years preceding the
publication of "Das Kapital," with a wealth of learning, a
cogency and subtlety of reasoning, and an ardor of style to
which Karl Marx could not so much as pretend? In the
numerous works of P. J. Proudhon, published between 1840
and 1860, this notable truth was turned over and over and
inside out until well-nigh every phase of it had been presented
to the light.

What was the economic theory developed by Karl Marx?
That we may not be accused of stating it unfairly, we give
below an admirable outline of it drawn by Benoit Malon, a